Thank a Teacher

by Kristen Bierma

May 5-9 marks "Teacher Appreciation Week," which made me realize that I do not often enough say thank you to all the teachers in my children's lives. Whether your children are homeschooled, preschool age, or out of the house, I am guessing that they have, at some point, been blessed by a teacher. If you are home with young children or homeschooling, YOU are their earliest teacher, passing on The Really Important Things such as please and thank you, ABCs, and that boogers belong in tissues. So, consider yourself thanked as well--for doing all the hard work, from the very beginning.

If, like me, you do not have time to make a cute or elaborate thank you gift from Pinterest, here are some other simple options for affirming the teachers in your life:

Suggestions:

- Drop off a latte when you drop your kids off to school. If you're really feeling creative, write "Thanks a latte for all you do."
- Write a thank you email or note. Affirming words are powerful and will long be remembered.
- Say thank you. In person. Add a genuine hug, if you are the hugging type.
- Have your child write a note or color a picture of thanks.
- Hang a "Gratitude Graffiti" poster outside the teacher's classroom. Ask the children to write a note of appreciation.
- Send them the words below. Acknowledgement and recognition, even in the simplest forms, go a long way.

For Our Children's Teachers
For your endless prep times, weekend grading, summer planning, and all you do that is above-and-beyond...
we recognize you.
For dealing with budget cuts, bureaucracy, administration, curriculum changes, standardized testing, and all other similar issues that most likely suck up your time and mental energy....
we acknowledge you.
For knowing our children so well that you recognize their learning styles, personalities and strengths, and for teaching them accordingly,
we thank you.
For reinforcing what we teach at home by teaching our children not only facts, but also wisdom, social skills, empathy, and that the world does not revolve around them....
we are so grateful.
For caring for hundreds of children over the years, and in so doing, building up our future electricians, doctors, pastors, social workers, teachers, and citizens...
we applaud you.
For the many moments that you wonder if what you do matters or makes any difference, and for pouring yourself into these many children's lives with little recognition, pay, or acknowledgement...
we give you a standing ovation.
We see you, we appreciate you, and we value you, even when we forget to tell you.
For you have blessed our children and there is no greater gift.

What are your simple or creative ideas of showing gratitude to teachers? Please share!

Love all these new voices!

We are tickled fucsia to introduce another guest blogger, Kristen Bierma! Look for her posts once monthly! Kristen lives in Anchorage with her husband Doug and three kids, ages 9, 11, and 13. She is a licensed therapist and works part-time on a clinical team that helps diagnose autism in young children. She spends most of her time in a messy minivan, but also carves out time to blog, enjoy the beauty of Alaska, and find creative ways to discover joy in a very full life.

"I feel honored (and a little intimidated) to be asked to share some of my thoughts about this journey called life for Kaleidoscape. Parenting is one of the hardest jobs on the planet and the least recognized! It’s great that Kaleidoscape can offer a shared play space for parents to connect with their children and with each other. I am excited to link arms with other Anchorage families and journey on!"

The Art of Learning

by Jennifer Stratton

I've been artsy-craftsy for as long as I can remember. Much of my childhood was spent reading Volume 9 of my Childcraft Encyclopedias; Make & Do under the covers with a flashlight. It was worth it, even if I got caught poring over the bright, slick pages. I spent so many hours reading and crafting from that one volume that tonight when I typed the title into the search engine, the memories took my breath away.  Even after thirty-five years, I still want to color a tiger onto sandpaper with oil pastels and paint a bird onto corrugated cardboard. It was as though the projects came alive for me in that book and I could not wait to do it for myself. It is clear to me now that I am part visual and part kinesthetic learner, meaning that I learn by seeing first, then by doing it! Seems simple, right? 

Learning Styles by Percentage

Well, it is if you are among the 65% of visual learners or the 30% of auditory learners. 

>Teacher writing on a board.<  

>Teacher giving a lecture.<

Schooling is based on the above learning styles and it's been done that way since dinosaurs walked the earth. 

But wait... what about that other 5%... the tactile learners? 

Since I am a visual learner, I of course looked for a pie chart to show the percentages of visual, auditory and tactile learners. Research shows that most females change to visual learning in the second or third grade, while males tend to retain their tactile learning style throughout life. Well damn! This makes so much sense why my second grade kinesthetic daughter is struggling in school and why so many boys struggle and the  rate of male dropouts is so high!

Tactile students learn by doing, touching, wiggling, cartwheeling and generally distracting all the other learners in the class. They are often misdiagnosed as ADHD or Trouble (see that capital T?) Yeah. My sweet, scary-smart eight year old daughter who loves reading, is a natural leader and cannot seem to sit still for 30 minutes was given and "ISS" or In School Suspension a few weeks ago for wiggling and running at the inappropriate time. It has since been retracted, but the fact remains that these learn-by-doing kiddos are getting the short end of the stick! I get it. She is busy. Ok, she is really busy and it's an issue in a traditional classroom. Until I can find a kinesthetic classroom that allows for her to move about the classroom because the "fasten seatbelt light" is off, we have decided to home school her. In our free time. Truthfully, time was a big concern, but how can we not carve out the time to provide her an education in the way that she learns? 

Bonus for Mama; arsty-craftsy activities are kinesthetic! 

If I'm going to home school, there will be art in her learning,
because for my child, learning is an art. 

Let Them Be Little

written by Jenny Fast

Recently I visited a friend whose children are near the same ages as mine (3years and 1.5years), and as all of our kiddos were running around the house playing and roughhousing, a screaming war broke out. I’m not sure if this is an all-girl thing or not (I’ve got two girls), but mine do this on a regular basis – one of them will let out a high-pitched, looooouuuuud scream, and the other will repeat. Then it turns into a screamy free-for-all, and I just try to tune it out and continue making dinner (okaaaaay, sometimes I join in).

On this particular occasion, however, the friends I was visiting immediately shut down the girls’ game-o-screams with a stern “NO YELLING” scold. I laughed when the kids tried “screaming” in whispers after that, but I did have a few questions for my friend – the first being “Why no yelling?”

The answer was, “it’s just too loud, I can’t think.” And that I understood, because we’ve all been in the position of trying to have a conversation while being flanked by screamy-kids… but then I followed up with, “when do you let them yell?”

And the answer this time was, “um, never.”

NEVER? As in, never-ever? Like, Never-Ever-Ever?

                                 But… when do they get to be kids?

Listen, this post is not going to be some overwhelming “this is how you do it right” parenting post. My main objective here is to introduce myself, my style, and give a little insight into how *I* parent and interact with my kids. Hopefully you’ll find some funny, honest, heartwarming stories of my experiences and ideas that speak to you as a parent, too! I believe there is too much judgment floating around out there in this scary world of parenting to dole it out myself, so instead I’ll just share (and encourage you to share) some great stuff and cross my fingers that you’ll be inspired along the way. 

Before I had children, I (like many) had this image in my mind of wonderfully well-behaved, quiet, clean, polished kids. Now, I think that image is so… BORING. Now, I realize that I don’t want my children to be little quiet miniature-adults… instead, my girls are inspiring ME to want to be a loud, messy, super-fun giant KID!

I can honestly say I love playing with play-doh, and coloring, and painting, and building towers out of mega-bloks… and I let my girls lead me in all of those things. Their creativity is so amazing and inspiring, and I’m just now beginning to see that this is SUCH a good thing. When my toddler decides she wants to see what it would feel like to dump an entire bucket of squinkies (think teeny-tiny rubber figurines) over her head, SURE, I cringe, because ohmigoshihavetocleanthatup… but then I remind myself that she’s really just curious, and the aesthetics are new and cool to her. When my preschooler wants to mix all the play-doh together in one big eventual-brown lump, my mild OCD tendencies scream in my head that “you don’t mix colors!”… but then I remind myself that she’s experimenting, creating, and learning – and I definitely don’t want to stifle that. (Plus play-doh is like dirt-cheap, and you can even make it yourself!)  

That’s my main point here… I don’t want to stifle creativity, experience, or learning in my children. It can be difficult at times, especially when I’m trying to clean or cook or be an adult and my kids are off painting each other with nail polish or covering the dog in stickers… but I remind myself daily that I need to LET THEM BE CHILDREN.

And to me, this is what that means:

Let them be children.

Let them get dirty.

Let them play.

Let them lead.

Let them mix colors.

Let them jump on the couch.

(Let them jump off the couch.)

Let them pretend.

Let them dress-up.

Let them build.

Let them create.

Let them imagine.

Let them perform.

Let them yell.

Let them scream.

Let them be LOUD. 

Let them BE.

Is anyone beginning to see why my family and I love Kaleidoscape? 

Let’s see… a giant studio where kids of all ages (really… all ages. I play dress up almost every time I’m there!) can use their imaginations, build cool stuff, pretend to be an astronaut or a princess or a pirate or a wolf, play with a new sensory table each week, and basically just practice being a kid? WE’RE IN.

How about you, parents? What kind of play are your children into lately? 

How are you letting them be kids?

Where have we been???

Seems to me that all blogs have ebbs and flows and ours has been at an ebb for some time.
(Meaning... it's been way too long since our last post!)
So, here we go with the resurrection of Kaleidoscape Play Studio's blog!

Over the next week, we will announce (an post) from our new guest bloggers and we know you will LOVE them!

Please welcome Jenny Fast as a new bi-weekly GUEST BLOGGER!

You may recognize her wit and voice, as she is the author of The Adventures of Superwife!

Jenny lives in Anchorage with her husband, Adam and their two daughters, Ellie (3) and Jamie (1). When she’s not working, cleaning up juice/water/milk spills, or explaining to her kids that there are more food groups than “fruit snacks”, she chronicles the often-humorous life as a parent of young children on her blog, The Adventures of Superwife. Her website has won the public-chosen “Best Local Blog” award in the Anchorage Press Picks in 2011, 2012 and 2013. “Writing is my passion… my family is my life. When I get to combine the two and write about my kids (or kids/parenting in general), especially in a capacity that helps other parents or makes them laugh about this crazy rollercoaster we’re all on, it just fills my heart. I love Kaleidoscape’s mission to keep kids engaged and creatively encouraged, as I’m continuously looking for ways to keep my own kiddos active and inspired – I love watching how creativity blossoms and grows in a child. I’m so honored to write for KPlay’s site... Cheers to new Adventures!” Jenny can be found at online at www.theadventuresofsuperwife.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/superwifejenny. She can also be reached by email at superwifejenny@gmail.com.

My Current Obsession with Robots

I think I'm going bonkers for 'bots. It started last year about this time when I was asked to make an art piece for Green Star on the Go annual auction and KrE 8; the can-crushing-robot-recycler was born. Since then, I've been contemplating other ways to use robots in my artistic world.

I grew up with the Jestons, R2D2 and Rock'em Sock'em robots. By today's standards, these are quaint ideas of what is truly available with technology. Laughable even - my iPhone is more advanced than all of those archaic robots put together! But the charm of dials, buttons and metal has entranced me.

We added a robot element to the new MechanicKs exhibit at Kaleidoscape on Ocotber 8th. It is complete with buttons to push, lights that flash and 'bots to build... and still, I find myself craving even more.

It's not even what the robot can DO, it's more about the visual appeal. My Pinterest feed is filled with DIY projects of all sorts! With Halloween looming and several places to be in costume, I feel as though I MUST BE A ROBOT! Supplies are compiling, designs coming together.           

 I. will. be. a. mom. bot. 

(Waaaaayy different than a fem-bot for those in the know.) 

     

Play is without age, ability, shade, size, shape or screen.

One of the most heart wrenching things I see is when a parent tells a child, "You can't do that, you are too <insert here> old/young/smart/little/big/slow/fast/green/anything for that." Too old? to play? I say NEVER! At what age does a person become too old to participate in play?
Is it something that we choose to leave behind or does it become stifled? I choose to champion play! Everyone should laugh and be silly and do a maze, to be delighted by the unexpected, to twirl and spin. It is our position that the random collision of these five elements IS play: Creating, Performing & Building, Experiencing & Imagining. When this happens... it is magical.

Play is for All Manifesto
Play is without age, ability, shade, size, shape or screen.

Create without worry of what your final project will be.
Perform... the world IS a stage.
Build and rebuild when your tower topples.
Experience new things; let your senses lead you to playfulness.
Imagine. Oh my stars... imagine a new world, a new way of being.
Embrace your silly side. Release your inner goof-ball.
Do these things in your own way.

Kaleidoscape Play Studio is on a mission to promote play for all!